LITCHFIELD — The Litchfield City Council has reversed course and agreed to use revenue from the city’s hotel-motel tax to help fund the Litchfield Museum & Route 66 Welcome Center.

The council agreed in principle earlier this month to increase the tax from 3 percent to 4 percent beginning in May, with a half percent going to the museum for four years. The city also will contribute $20,000 from its tourism fund to reimburse museum organizers for the purchase of display cases.

City clerk Denise Lueker said the council is scheduled to vote Dec. 4 on an ordinance that would make the changes official.

Mayor Tom Jones said it’s important to note that the money will come from taxes paid by hotel guests, not local residents. The hotel-motel tax goes directly into a fund devoted to promoting tourism.

“This is not city money they’re getting,” Jones said. “This is tourism money.”

The history

Organizers of the museum, an Art Deco-style building nearing completion on the former site of the Vic Shuling gas station along Historic Route 66, first approached the city this summer with a funding request.

They originally asked for $100,000 but pared the request down to $20,000 after it became clear that the council wouldn’t support a contribution of that size.

City officials then asked the museum group to come back with a more detailed business plan.

When they presented that plan last month, the council split 4-4 on the funding request, and Jones declined to cast the tie-breaking vote, saying he had “no opinion one way or the other.”

Lonnie Bathurst, a local businessman who leads the museum’s steering committee, said organizers were in touch with council members during the past month to show them that the project has strong support in the community, including from hotel and motel owners.

Organizers were “very excited” by the council’s decision to contribute tourism funds to the project and “certainly believe it’s a step in the right direction,” he said.

What’s next?

Construction of the museum, which will focus on local history and seek to attract tourists passing through town on Route 66, is nearly complete, with only exterior landscaping and interior furnishings left to finish, Bathurst said.

Organizers are hoping to open the doors to visitors in April or May, he said.

The Montgomery County Genealogical Society has already moved into its new office space in the building.

Meanwhile, the museum’s steering committee is continuing its fundraising efforts.

In addition to selling commemorative brick pavers, the committee is preparing to kick off a capital campaign early next year to raise $250,000 to pay off the museum’s construction debt, Bathurst said.

While Jones didn’t take a position on the funding request, he said he believes the museum will be an asset to the community.

Page 2 of 2 - “They’ve got a beautiful building,” he said. “It kind of puts you in the mind of the buildings that were out there when Route 66 was the Mother Road going through town.”

Dan Petrella can be reached at 788-1532. Follow him at twitter.com/PetrellaReports.